Page 694 - war-and-peace

intentions, but remarked that besides these changes it would
be necessary to go into the general state of affairs which was
far from satisfactory.
Despite Count Bezukhov’s enormous wealth, since he
had come into an income which was said to amount to
five hundred thousand rubles a year, Pierre felt himself far
poorer than when his father had made him an allowance of
ten thousand rubles. He had a dim perception of the follow-
ing budget:
About 80,000 went in payments on all the estates to the
Land Bank, about 30,000 went for the upkeep of the estate
near Moscow, the town house, and the allowance to the
three princesses; about 15,000 was given in pensions and
the same amount for asylums; 150,000 alimony was sent
to the countess; about 70,00 went for interest on debts. The
building of a new church, previously begun, had cost about
10,000 in each of the last two years, and he did not know how
the rest, about 100,000 rubles, was spent, and almost every
year he was obliged to borrow. Besides this the chief steward
wrote every year telling him of fires and bad harvests, or of
the necessity of rebuilding factories and workshops. So the
first task Pierre had to face was one for which he had very
little aptitude or inclinationpractical business.
He discussed estate affairs every day with his chief stew-
ard. But he felt that this did not forward matters at all. He
felt that these consultations were detached from real affairs
and did not link up with them or make them move. On the
one hand, the chief steward put the state of things to him
in the very worst light, pointing out the necessity of paying

694 War and Peace